Saturday, May 31, 2008

New Technologies Create New Opportunities

Here's an interesting experiment. Stage a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and use Archaeopteryx for the audio. Set it on an ambient music course, and instead of giving it key progressions which emphasize harmony and beauty, use minor keys and discordant shifts, and shitloads of samples of George Bush. Have the process of entering the theater mimic the TSA experience; require that theater-goers remove their shoes, pass them through a phony conveyor belt, and submit to unnecessary searches; have an actor planted in the line, who is dragged off to be audibly tortured. Get vocal samples of that actor and add those samples to the Archaeopteryx mix. Keep it low, and quiet, but never absent. Use modern clothes and an aggressive mood. There's a scene where an old man (named Giles!) attacks a sneaky manipulator over an injustice; in the stage directions he doesn't actually hit the guy, but in this production he can, and should. Charged and ominous and fierce. Surveillance cameras in the backdrop.